Purple Stained Nightmare
by Kaoru-chibimaster
Summary: I always thought life had meaning. Maybe it's just worthless as it seems to be thrown away as easily as it's given. Maybe this is punishment for the crimes we commit but it's done nothing but make me stronger. I only have to keep moving forward.


Purple Stained Nightmare

A/N: It's one of those stories … the ones where you can't get it out of your head and you have to write it down or you'll die. Anyway, it's just a one-shot that popped into my mind a few days ago so review and enjoy. By the way, I know people hate OCs sometimes but it was the only option, I wasn't going to re-do Denzel's story so I chose a random kid to explain his life with the Stigma. Don't kill me please, I did my best …

Warnings: Blood, Language

Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy VII or Final Fantasy VII Advent Children

/\o-o/\

These streets … they're so dreary. They aren't really anything to look at, I don't know why we had to move here. I mean, I may be five, but it doesn't mean I don't understand. I understood that those people on the other side of the street looking ready to leave to someplace far away weren't just leaving the scenery. They were leaving their loved ones. Their … dead loved ones. The people they hold dearly caught it. They caught that weird disease that stains everything black and purple, like a bruise. A big, ugly bruise that kills. I understood that that's why we moved here. My old hometown was overrun with it. There were bruises everywhere. My parents called it something. Gee-yo-stigma …? Was that it? I'm not even really sure. I just remember watching as my grandmother, who had caught the disease, fall to the ground in a pool of her own blood. My mother tried to shield my eyes but I saw it. And it's burned in my memory, too. I'll never forget watching my grandmother die. Not like that.

After that, we packed up our stuff and moved immediately. They said it was too unsafe for a family to try and raise a child. We moved from one dreary place to another. No, this place is actually much worse. The Stigma thing is still here, just not as bad as it was in my hometown. It couldn't even be called a town anymore, almost everyone who lived there either moved or died. I just have to accept it. My parents have, the world has, so why not me? It's not like I can fix everything and bring everybody back. I learned that as a valuable lesson a few weeks later.

It was a normal day. I was sitting outside on the grayish sidewalk watching people pass by and attempt to avoid looking into my eyes. I stared straight at them, hoping they would just take the chance and realize I wasn't sitting out here carrying some weird disease. I wish they could look down and notice that I didn't have the purple bruise anywhere on me. And it was a hot day so it's not like I was covering up. The sun was blaring down on the town with a type of harshness as if it wanted to prove we could be just as bright as anywhere else. No, if you're asking, no we couldn't. The streets were only a darker gray than the sidewalks. The small amount of vehicles that travelled through here were usually pitch black or pure white. Even the clothes we wear seemed to be bland and tasteless. Sorry, sun, you lose out on this round. The streets were quiet as usual, no one here liked to make a big fuss about anything. In fact, I don't think there are any kids here besides me. Maybe that's why I'm homeschooled. So the strange, eerie silence was even creepier when it was broken by a bloodcurdling scream. It came from right behind me too. I sounded like my mother.

I had no choice. I ran right back inside to see what was wrong. My mother screamed at me to stay back when she saw me walk in. I ignored her and stepped closer. My dad was lying on the ground in a state much like my grandmother. Funny how she was his mother … My own mother realized I had ignored her and had pushed me back roughly. She wasn't quite as fast this time though. I still saw the purple stain running down the side of my father's face, along with the blood dripping out of his mouth and pooling onto the ground. I just stared, even after my mother covered my eyes. I stared into the blackness caused by her hand. I couldn't even cry. My father, my role-model, the only person I ever really looked up to, one of the only people I've ever truly loved, was now lying in the middle of our living room floor … dead. I could feel the sobs heaving in my mother's shaking shoulders as she tried to rush us both out of the house. It was a bad thing to be in there now … it was infected, dirty. We had to move again. I couldn't exactly say we left this town the way I wanted. I wanted to see the sunshine on it actually make it brighter. I wanted to leave with a smile on my face and my parents by my side. I didn't expect to leave with only my mother, broken and in tears, from a dreary town that only seemed to become drearier as we left. I didn't expect my family to break apart so easily.

Should I explain my situation a little more? My name is James Mealey or as my friends call me if I ever had any friends, Jack. My parents refused to call me that, my mother always said that I should be happy with the name I was given and my father said that James was always more proper to be addressed by, why lower myself to a name like Jack? I personally though it was a cool name but whatever. Parents are parents … Anyway, I'm five years old, turning six in January, two months from now. I know, this place is weird, it stays hot all year round, but now that we're moving, we may be going to a place that's completely different. Mom always said staying in the general area where the stigma may exist is a big no-no. So we always move far away. Just that … this time, we're moving with one less person accompanying us. Mom said our destination is Midgar, but we've got to get through tons of other places to get there. It may even take us years to get to Midgar; we're not exactly what some would call a rich family. We had to settle down once in a while, get ourselves back on our feet, as my mom always told me. She would always apologize to me too. She said I don't deserve this type of life, I deserved better. I get that she's only being a mom when she says that but it still makes me uncomfortable. There are too many people out there in need of a better life for me to be of any importance.

/\o-o/\

It's been three years since my father died. For three years, I've been running from place to place alongside my mother trying to just live. There's not much a life that I have, but I'm grateful for the chance to just live it. My mother, on the other hand, says she's given up on life. I didn't understand, she was given a life, why not enjoy while she could. She didn't have much of it left, I could tell from the purple bruise spreading itself up her right arm and the side of her neck. Some of it could even be seen on her cheek. She kept telling me to run away, that she won't safe to be around anymore and that she'd failed me as a mother. I couldn't have seen her as more wrong. She raised me by herself for three years, grieving for two of those years and suffering the Geo-Stigma spreading through her body for one of the years. She always gave me more than she had herself and shielded me from anything she saw as a threat, the category of which was growing tremendously. Now the only thing she'd managed to shield me from is the bright smile that used to appear on her face. That was taken from her the moment my father was taken from her. Maybe she felt she deserved this fate. Maybe she thought she really had failed me. As for my opinion, I couldn't have known anyone braver than her. She fought … for a while at least. I wasn't long before she even refused to go outside. I always had to get the supplies, I even had to do odd jobs to earn extra gil. Good luck's never been on my side though. I always had to make my own luck … everyone else had to fend for themselves. And as much as I hate to admit it, my mom wasn't cut out for fighting so long. Sooner or later … she had to fall.

"Mom, I'm home."

There was silence. That was unusual as my mother never left home now and she would always greet me from the back of the small house. She said it was rude to not answer when someone enters the house; it gave us the wrong idea.

"Mom …?"

The silence was strange, even more disturbing than the town we lived in when Dad died. I trudged to the back room, taking in my surroundings. Everything was spotless as usual, there was no strange smell, nothing missing or out of place. And when I got to the back room, there was my mother, her eyes glued to the window as usual. But when she turned to face me, I noticed it. How could I not? The entire right side of her face was as purple as jelly. Like something had punch her in that side of her face continuously but without the swelling. Even her right eye seemed to be grayish and glassy like that eye couldn't see me but the other could. Oh the other could see me, that would explain the bloody tears streaming down the left side of her face. Her mouth moved and I had to step closer to hear her.

"Lee … ee …"

I strained my ears as she repeated the statement.

"L-leave … me."

It hit me, just then. My mother knew she was about to die. And she wanted me to leave before I had to witness it. I couldn't stop the tears from streaming down my face now. I was only nine years old and I had to witness my mother's death. After this, I'd have no one left. The light left her only seeing eye. The lid drooped a bit but didn't completely close and she slumped down until she was sitting in a position only a dead person could accomplish without screaming in pain. I broke down just then. I collapsed to the floor and bawled my eyes out. I cried all night long in front of my dead mother's body. And the next morning when I finished crying, I stared at her blankly until it felt like I could no longer see. I couldn't feel my limbs, my skin felt too tight and I knew just then that I wanted to join my parents. Wherever they are has to be better than here. No pain or sadness. But they wouldn't have wanted that. They would've wanted me to live and find a way to make a better life for myself. They wouldn't have wanted to see the small specks of purple forming on my fingers that I had been hiding for a few days. They would've wanted me to prove that I'm a fighter. No way would I just give up and die. No, I couldn't until I saw this purple stained nightmare end.

A few months passed since I had buried my own mother. I was living on my own, if this could be called living. I had packed up what little stuff I had that day and left. I went anywhere, it didn't matter. Right now, I was hiding out on a small patch of land that some old guy owned. He had a pen where children could pet his Chocobos, when I first came here three weeks ago that was where he found me. Curled into myself next to a bunch of somewhat hostile Chocobos that probably thought I was a threat. Whatever, like I even noticed. The old man, though, he seemed to know what I was going through so when he offered his hand to me, I didn't hesitate to take it. Turns out his oldest daughter had recently died from the Stigma. He heard in a letter when she had been found in the street immobile and glassy eyed with the signature purple stain trailing down her back. His youngest daughter now had to take care of her older sister's former responsibilities. Another surprise, the eldest was on a trip to Midgar and that duty was now left to Arisa, his youngest. She was tiny, I had to admit. But she was tough. When I asked if I could go with her on the trip she outright told me no. Besides, she wasn't leaving until she was old enough to travel by herself which, by the old man's standards, wasn't far away. I told her that I would go anyway, it was a goal of my parents to get to Midgar and I would fulfill it for them. It took some convincing but I finally got through to her. In the meantime, she gave me her old chores now that she's taking care of her older sister's. This went on for four years, and in that time, they became my new family. Then it hit.

/\o-o/\

"When are we leaving?" I asked.

"As soon as the old man's buried. I can't believe that old coot, he didn't even freaking die from the Stigma! He caught so other stupid ass virus. That's right! A stupid ass virus for a stupid ass man!" Arisa spat. I stared at her for a moment before getting up to wrap my arms around her in comfort. I knew she was crying inside, she was just too stubborn to admit it.

We had both just turned thirteen, me on January twenty third and Arisa on February second. There was snow on the ground to add to the dreariness of this day. Mr. Herrstine, Arisa's father, had died only two days ago from pneumonia. I know it seems that with Geo Stigma floating around, no other virus was important but count on Terry Herrstine to prove us wrong. He was Arisa's only real family left, her sister had died from the Stigma and both her mother and baby brother died in childbirth when Arisa was only four years old. For almost ten years she'd been living with her father, five of those with her sister and four of them with me acting as the brother she never had. Now, I really was all she had. And it was time for us to start our trip to Midgar. I never really understood the importance of getting there, I just always felt it had to be done. Now I found out that there was a cure there. Arisa didn't trust it but I felt it was our only hope. Where else could we go? When I asked her this, she said in her usual tone either there or bust. She can at least make her mind up quickly.

"So, how do you expect to get there?" she asked me.

"Umm … we walk there?" I suggested as though it were obvious. She scoffed.

"So you choose for our feet to bleed. We'll be dead before we get there!"

She might be right. The purple on my fingers had spread to my entire hand and poor Arisa had it on the back of her neck. It wasn't hard to see since her hair was as short as mine though hers was a whitish blonde and mine was pitch black. In fact, we didn't have much in common in the looks department at all. She was pale due to living in the country and I was tan from living in mostly hot, sun-filled places. Her eyes were storm gray and mine were bright green. Her attitude was like fire and mine was dead as ice. She was a leader … Me? I didn't even know what I was.

"It's not like we have a choice …" I sighed.

"How about we just steal someone's motorcycles and ride into the sunset—"

"How about no …"

She gave me a look like I had just crushed her dreams. And that I would pay for it.

"You really wanna walk all the way to Midgar? I'd rather ride a Chocobo there! And do you know how uncomfortable that is?" she yelled at me. I shoved her away a little, she was getting hysterical and we needed a clear mind.

"We can't hitch a ride, no one would take us since it's blatantly obvious that we're infected. Our only choice is to walk," I told her, squeezing her shoulder a little bit as it started getting darker.

"Well that makes sense and all, but where the hell are we supposed to sleep. What are we going to eat, rats? That's disgusting Jack—"

I cut her off again "Of course we're not eating rats. You're right that is disgusting. We'll sleep wherever we find shelter and eat whatever we find suitable."

"So we're stealing for food? Is that what your mother would have wanted?" she grumbled.

"My mother's dead, Arisa, it doesn't matter what she wanted," I whispered through gritted teeth. Arisa knew that was a sore subject, which is probably why she used it as a defense. I hated the idea of stealing our meals too, but no one will let a bunch of children with Geo Stigma work for them only to have them die. If we didn't steal, we might as well give up and rot in the middle of the road.

"My father is dead, James. If he knew I was stealing other's food for myself, he'd rise out of his grave and slap the sense into me. You know I don't like that idea …" she mumbled. I knew she meant it, she never uses my real name unless she's dead serious.

"I know … but it's either that or starve."

"We might as well drop dead covered in purple bruises."

"You know you don't mean that—"

"What if I wanted to die, James? What if I wanted to join my father and mother and sister and baby brother I never even had the pleasure of knowing? What if I didn't want to fight some stupid disease that'll kill me anyway?"

This was the very first time I'd ever seen Arisa Herrstine cry. I wanted to cry with her, I knew exactly how she felt. But I also knew that she wanted nothing more than to live, just like me. I hugged her again and pressed my face into her hair. She always hated that I'd gotten much taller than her.

"That's why we're going to Midgar. They can fix us, word spreads fast."

"How do you know?"

"… I don't."

/\o-o/\

The morning after that, we hit the road. We carried whatever food we could with us and whatever belongings were precious to us and left immediately. Arisa refused to stay longer than we needed. If we were leaving, then we were doing it now or never. I agreed with her, I wanted to leave those memories behind as quickly as possible so that I wouldn't use them as comfort later. That would only hold me back. We started down the road and never once looked back. I was proud of her. She didn't complain during our long walks along the side of the road. In fact, she helped out a lot, telling me the fastest routes to take and where we could find shelter. That is, until we reached the area we didn't know. It was dead, no one was driving on the road and the only sign we had to go by was a sign telling us that there was a power plant nearby. An abandoned one at that. It belonged to that guy Rufus Shinra, the man who used Gaia's lifestream as a power source. Everyone hated the man and by default I did too. I never really knew the guy that well, I still don't know much about him. But he's the one who made the planet this way. How could I possibly like him for that? But I had to hand it to him, his power plant served as a good refuge.

"Hello? Is anybody in here?" Arisa shouted. Her voice echoed across the room. The sound came back distorted, proving how cluttered everything was in here. No one must've cared about all the stuff left in here. There was scattered paper and random equipment everywhere but at least it was relatively clean which meant it was just recently abandoned. I grabbed Arisa's arm and tugged, trying to coax her to go forward.

"I guess no one's here huh?" she asked quietly.

"I wouldn't exactly say that …"

We both turned in surprise to see a boy around fifteen standing on one of the random equipment and smirking at us in amusement. We continued to stare as he jumped down and advanced towards us slowly.

"What, you two lovers or something? Are you planning your honeymoon? I can tell ya right now, if your thinking about this place keep searching. Not very romantic at all," he said, smirk still in place.

"Wha-what w-we're not—" Arisa stuttered, her face turning crimson.

"It's not like that. What are you doing here anyway?" I asked calmly, trying to hide the blush on my own cheeks.

"Trying to get to Midgar, you going to? Wanna come with? I've got a few buddies who're coming with me."

As he said this, a few more kids, two boys one with brown hair and one with … was that silver? Anyway they looked around this kids age (I can't really describe him except for the fact that he wears a blue beanie and his eyes are almost as black as my hair). The girl looked around my and Arisa's age and she had bright red hair, almost pink.

"You don't want us to go with you. We're infected, wouldn't want you worried about dying because of us," Arisa grumbled. I squeezed her hand as if in warning. The kid in front of us just laughed.

"Why do you think we're going to Midgar? We've got the Stigma too!"

"You say that like it's a good thing …" I said.

"Well, it is for you. Now you got people to watch your backs. We take care of one another, that's for sure. By the way, my name's Chain. Don't bother asking what it really is, I'm not entirely sure myself. The kid with the silver hair is Raine and the brunette is Atkin. Redhead's name is Mimi and I suggest you not lay too close to her when we're sleeping because she talks in her sleep."

"Why's that so bad?" Arisa asked.

"She's psychic. If you sleep to close to her, she may say something about you. I know how tempting it is to know your future but so far, every kid who slept next to her has already died from the Stigma. It sounds like she's causing it but these were the kids that were bound to die early anyway, Mimi just told them exactly when. I personally do not want to know when I'm going to die, I'd rather it be at a ripe old age anyway," Chain whispered, probably being considerate of the girl Mimi. She did look pretty fragile.

"Why do you keep her around?"

"Arisa!"

"What? It just seems weird!"

Chain just laughed.

"Having a psychic around can be pretty darn useful at times. She can tell us where there'll be shelter or food. You know the whole grab and run deal right? Well it also helps if she knows who owns the guns. It's pretty pointless to fight for our lives if we're only gonna get shot to death."

Arisa and I nodded in agreement. We'd narrowly avoided getting shot once ourselves.

"So. Who're you two?" Raine asked, walking towards us and I noticed with a jolt that his eyes were blood red. Creepy.

"I'm Jack and this is Arisa," I said, pointing to myself and then to Arisa. She nodded at him while I shook his hand.

"So, Jack, Arisa, what're your stories?" Chain asked.

We'd spent the rest of that afternoon exchanging stories of how we'd gotten here and how we'd heard of Midgar's cure. None of us knew exactly what it was but we were all ready to give it a shot. Like I said, it's better than nothing … right?

/\o-o/\

"Ladies and gentlemen, I now present to you … Midgar!"

We all laughed as he spun around in joy. It took us two months to get this far but in that two months, we'd only gotten closer to each other. I learned that Chain didn't remember his real name because he lost his memory in an accident. He doesn't even know who his real parents are. Raine had lived the longest with the Stigma, ten years. Although he blames it on the infection being small, only showing on the ankle of his left leg, I figured it was pure willpower. Atkin has a way with animals. We've never once had trouble with guard dogs. And when Mimi's not sleeping near anyone, she whispers in her sleep about the disappearance of the Stigma and something about an avalanche and turks. We'd all become the closest of friends. There was no one I was closer to other than my parents and Arisa. When I looked down to Arisa, she had a blank stare on her face. I nudged her.

"What's up?"

"Oh? It's just … after everything, we're finally here! We can finally be fixed, we won't have to die like my sister or your parents did. It's just so much to take in …"

I hugged her without a second thought and for once, she hugged me back. Chain made a gagging noise.

"Look, you guys, you can be a married couple after we get ourselves cured. Right now, we need to find out where to go …"

"Hey!"

We all turned to see a girl with pigtails and a moogle in her arms running towards us.

"You guys new here? I noticed a lot of kids were coming in to get themselves fixed. You guys have the Stigma too right? C'mon, I know just where to go!" she yelled, running back towards where she came from. We all stared at each other for a moment before following.

She led us through a bunch of alleyways, the slums of Midgar as they called them, until we reached the truck. There were kids being loaded onto it and a man dressed in black with long silver hair overseeing it with a satisfied smirk. I was immediately weary but shook it off as Chain excitedly pushed us all onto the truck.  
>It started and we were soon being brought through hidden roads to this beautiful place where the trees glowed white like they belonged in Heaven. The Forgotten City as some of the children called it. We were all herded off the truck once it halted and brought before a man who looked just like the driver of the truck except with shorter hair. He explained to us about how this planet wanted to torment humanity and something about 'mother'. The things he said … they had us in a trance. I couldn't even register what he said anymore. I just knew one thing … do as he does. It'll cure us. I could remember walking into the black water and drinking from it. After that … I couldn't even remember my own name. It was like being in a trance, I could only remember images. Images of a blonde man on a motorcycle riding towards us, of the people of Midgar in front of us yelling incoherently, of the monster that seemed to cause even more panic. Everything else was just … black. I couldn't even remember the man who we were all following. The most impact he left was his silver hair that looked so much like Raine's.<p>

Speaking of Raine … where is he? And the others … and Arisa. What happened to them? What happened? What—

"Hey, he's awake!"

"Are you alright kid? Listen, we can help you! It's not like what Kadaj did, we'll really fix you up!"

"She's right, Jack. Wake up."

My eyes opened slowly to see a bunch of people around me … including—

"Arisa …?"

I hefted myself up and looked around drowsily. There were a bunch of adults surrounding us and beyond them … kids. They were smiling and laughing as if nothing was wrong with the world. Even Arisa, who never smiles. She turned around to show me an area I'd become familiar with. The back of her neck. The stain … it was gone.

"W-was it …?"

"Kadaj? Definitely not! He's not tricking anyone else anymore!" the first voice said, belonging to a lady with short black hair. She held her hand out to me and I grabbed it.

"You must be new to Midgar; you came in with that group of new kids who all had the Stigma. Anyway, I'm Yuffie. This is Cid, Barrett, Tifa, Cait Sith, Red XIII, Vincent and … that guy over there is Cloud."

"Wha-wait. Do you mean the Stigma is … gone?" I asked frantically checking my hand. The purple was gone.

"Mhmm. It's been fixed for you, Jack. We're … we're not gonna die," Arisa said, surprising me with a hug again.

"What happened?" I asked, rubbing my forehead gently.

"It's sorta fuzzy but I remember that guy, Kadaj, was trying to trick us into being his legion of zombies and we were all brought back to Gaia after that big monster … thingy was defeated by these guys. After that, we were brought to this place and the water healed us. These are the good guys, they really did fix us!" Arisa smiled.

"I told you so …" I laughed silently and she laughed with me, for once not angry to be proven wrong. Chain and his crew all ran over as the adults left us to ourselves.

"So what'cha guys gonna do now?" Chain asked. It was a good question. We still had nowhere to go, no parents or family or anyone for that matter.

"We'll find something to do, we made it this far on our own, we can still keep going!"

"Yeah, yeah … you two can go find your dream home and plan your children, I get it …" Chain said, waving his hand as if it weren't important. Arisa started stuttering again and I ignored him entirely, choosing to look around and noticing the significantly brighter atmosphere in this place. The other kids were either still playing in the water or talking to each other. It was like a sanctuary, so peaceful and … happy. It's been a while since I could associate myself with such an emotion but I honestly felt happy. Like the nightmare was … finally over.

/\o-o/\

A/N: That was a very anti-climactic ending and I hated it, but I liked the idea in general so as you can see I still posted it. Things seemed to go by too quickly but I hope you guys don't hate me too much. In fact, blame my brain which seemed to come up with this on its own. I hope you don't think the story sucked too much, I tried to keep all the FFVII elements without retelling the actual Advent Children plotline. Review and tell me how I did please.


End file.
